Canada Basketball announced the list of 18 players who will form the roster for its qualifying games later this summer for next year's FIBA Basketball World Cup next year in China.
The list includes NBA players like Kelly Olynyk of the Miami Heat, Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets and Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Eight of the 14 Canadian players in the NBA are listed on the national team's roster.
The most notable player not on the list is Andrew Wiggins of the Wolves.
Rowan Barrett, the Canadian team's assistant general manager, didn't give a specific reason for Wiggins, who averaged 17.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game for the Wolves, not being part of the group.
"His initial desire was to play," he said. "I do think he had some circumstances come up that are going to limit his ability to play for us in June. "The door is open for September potentially as well."
Head coach Jay Triano downplayed Wiggins' absence. "My goal is to focus on players that are here," he said in a telephone conference call. "Guys are going to miss for different reasons."
But Josh Lewenberg, who covers the NBA for TSN.ca, reported that Wiggins has a "strained relationship with head coach Jay Triano, stemming from his previous and only experience playing with the (Canadian) senior men's team in 2015."
Triano, the former Phoenix Suns head coach, was just hired as the lead assistant for the Charlotte Hornets.
Lewenberg wrote: "As Triano's club squandered an opportunity to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, losing a heartbreaker to Venezuela at the FIBA Americas in Mexico City, Wiggins watched the final moments from the bench. Aaron Doornekamp – a veteran of the program, who closed the game instead – was called for the foul that set up Venezuela's winning free throw. Wiggins, who averaged a team-high 15.1 points for the tournament, scored just nine on 4-of-11 shooting in 26 disappointing minutes prior to the benching."
Read Lewenberg's full story here.
Triano said the pool of talented players available to him "is deeper than it ever has been."
"We have more Canadians playing overseas and, in the NBA, than we've ever had before," he said. "That's a thank you to the grassroots and what Canada Basketball has done and what the grassroots programs in Canada has done. I don't see this pool is getting smaller."
Canada is hoping to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2010.
